Yesterday we mentioned that a person who goes through challenges, and invokes thoughts of bitachon is rewarded for it. In the words of the Hovot Halevavot,
ויהיה נשכר על זה
He’s rewarded for this.
His source is the Navi Yirmiyah, the prophet of doom. The book of Yirmiyah prophesizes the destruction of the Temple. Yirmiyah also wrote Eicha, which describes the destruction.
After a whole chapter describing how the enemy will come, Yirmiyah ends off with the following (which we read on Rosh Hashana, because it talks about how G-d remembers the Jewish people for the good):
הָלֹ֡ךְ וְקָֽרָאתָ֩ בְאָזְנֵ֨י יְרוּשָׁלִַ֜ם
Go and call out in the ears of Jerusalem,
לֵאמֹ֗ר כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר ה'
and say the following: “So said G-d:
זָכַ֤רְתִּי לָךְ֙ חֶ֣סֶד נְעוּרַ֔יִךְ
I remember the kindness of your youth.
אַהֲבַ֖ת כְּלוּלֹתָ֑יִךְ
The belovedness of our wedding.
This refers to:
לֶכְתֵּ֤ךְ אַחֲרַי֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר בְּאֶ֖רֶץ לֹ֥א זְרוּעָֽה׃
How you followed Me in the desert, in a land that was not planted.”
Therefore,
קֹ֤דֶשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לה'
“The Jewish people are considered G-d’s holy one
רֵאשִׁ֖ית תְּבוּאָתֹ֑ה
Like the first of the grain given to the Kohen (known as teruma) anyone who eats it
(or starts up with them) will be guilty
רָעָ֛ה תָּבֹ֥א אֲלֵיהֶ֖ם נְאֻם־ה’׃
Evil will befall them —declares ה׳״
So Bnei Yisrael is at a point where they’re prophesizing doom, and yet this is the way G-d talks about the Jewish people. Why? Because He remembers the “kindness of our youth,” which refers to the fact that we followed G-d into the desert, had bitachon, and relied on Him when all the odds were against us.
That’s the power of bitachon.
The Hovot Halevavot tells us that it’s not the the mishkan G-d remembers, or our good deeds. Just that we followed Him blindly into the desert.
This is not just for the generation of then. It’s for us now as well. We are supposed to realize that one of the greatest acts we can do to cause merit, is to follow Hashem when we have a challenge, not question Him, and keep moving forward.
In another section of Hovot Halevavot, Shaar Heshbon HaNefesh, he mentions...
דע כי העשרה נסיונות...
You should know the ten tests of Avraham Avinu.
The reason we praise Abraham is because he went through all of these tests without complaints. They took away his wife, he was challenged with a child, he had to deal with famine... it’s all basically the same. Life didn’t go the way he might have wanted, and still Avraham followed G-d and accepted.
As the Hovot HaLevavot quotes, and we say everyday
מצאת את לבבו נאמן לפניך
You found his heart true to You
All the merits of Abraham, says Hovot HaLevavot, come from that point. He accepted G-d’s will.
On the other hand, even though Bnei Yisrael was praised for following Hashem into the desert, they complained and questioned throughout. There were 10 times that they got into trouble.
All of the rebuke they got was over the same point- they complained. They wanted to go back home, they didn’t like the water etc.
The difference between the tests of Avraham and those of that generation was the way they handled their tests.
We all go through this. It’s a fundamental of life. There’s an old Arab parable- “a head without a headache is a head in the grave.” In other words, life is full of headaches. How you tolerate or accept your headache is what separates the men from the boys, makes us great, and brings our reward.
Have a great day